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Eddie Murphy is all pimped out and ready to rid his community of evildoers in the first trailer for the comic biopic, Dolemite Is My Name. It's Director Craig Brewer's tribute to Rudy Ray Moore, a singer, dancer, and comedian in the 1960s and 1970s who went on to make a classic of blaxploitation film. (NB: The trailer is not entirely safe for workplace viewing.)

Moore claimed he got the idea for the Dolemite character while working in a Hollywood record store, where one of the locals used to tell obscene tall tales about a man named Dolemite. Moore adapted the persona into his act and released three albums of his frequently raunchy material accompanied by jazz and R&B musicians. Because of his delivery style (which typically involved rhyming lyrics), Moore is often called the "Godfather of Rap." (Snoop Dogg, who has a cameo in the biopic, has said, "Without Rudy Ray Moore, there would be no Snoop Dogg, and that's for real.")

Moore slowly built up a cult following, despite the fact that his albums (including the cover art) were much too vulgar to be publicly displayed in record stores. With the rise of "blaxploitation" films in the early 1970s, Moore saw an opportunity to bring the character Dolemite to the moviegoing masses. He financed his first film himself with royalties from his record sales. The result was the instant blaxploitation classic Dolemite, released in 1975, about "the ultimate ghetto hero" in the tradition of Shaft. Dolemite knew kung-fu, was a sharp dresser, was known for his sexual prowess, and was committed to ridding his neighborhood of criminal influences. The film's success spawned several sequels, although Moore's material never really made it to the mainstream.

1970s comedian Rudy Ray Moore (Eddie Murphy) comes up with his best character yet: Dolemite.

That's pretty much the plot of Dolemite Is My Name, judging by the trailer. We see Moore (played by Murphy) creating the character of Dolemite, right down to picking out an exciting lime-green suit for his act. We also see his growing frustration when his various unapologetically raunchy albums prove to be unmarketable through the usual channels. "A man slam a door in my face, I just find another door," he declares.

Then Moore goes to the movie theater and has an epiphany: he'll make his own film, with Dolemite as the central character. "If I get up in that light with my own movie, I could be everywhere at once," he says. He even recruits a bona fide film star, D'Urville Martin (Wesley Snipes), by promising to let Martin direct. Who cares if Moore doesn't actually know karate or kung fu? He declares himself a fast learner. From the looks of it, all does not go as planned, from a slightly bigger car explosion than expected, to the set actually falling down around the actors mid-sex scene. (Bonus points for the cheesy fake entrails.)

Dolemite Is My Name will debut at the Toronto Film Festival in September and will screen in select theaters this fall. It will also be available on Netflix. That gives you a little time to prepare, should you wish, by rewatching the original Dolemite and its sequels, The Human Tornado (1976) and The Return of Dolemite (2002), as well as the 1999 quasi-sequel, Shaolin Dolemite (1999).

I'm more of a connoisseur of his earlier masterpieces, such as Beverly Hills Cop, Trading Places, or 48 Hours. 🎩

Although I can relate to that sentiment, his fatsuit costume wearing movies was what brought him to the mainstream and gave Dave Chapelle one of his first silver screen appearances. The Nutty Professor and Norbit both go down as his GOTY's.

The film was released on December 5, 1984 in 1,532 theaters. It debuted in first place at the U.S. box office, making $15,214,805 in its first five days of release. It stayed at number one for 13 consecutive weeks and returned to number one in its 15th weekend making 14 non-consecutive weeks at number one tying Tootsie for the film with the most weeks at number one. The film earned $234,760,478 in the United States, being the highest-grossing film released in 1984. It also became the highest-grossing R rated film of all-time, a rank it would hold until The Matrix Reloaded in 2003. (Adjusted for inflation, Beverly Hills Cop is the third highest-grossing R rated film of all-time behind The Exorcist and The Godfather.) Box Office Mojo estimates that the film sold over 67 million tickets in the US.

I don't think you can get much more mainstream than that – and that was many years before he first donned a fat suit for a movie.

It is true, though, that Murphy's career was in a slump in the early 1990s. "The Nutty Professor" revived it – so one could argue that it brought him back into the mainstream.

The film was released on December 5, 1984 in 1,532 theaters. It debuted in first place at the U.S. box office, making $15,214,805 in its first five days of release. It stayed at number one for 13 consecutive weeks and returned to number one in its 15th weekend making 14 non-consecutive weeks at number one tying Tootsie for the film with the most weeks at number one. The film earned $234,760,478 in the United States, being the highest-grossing film released in 1984. It also became the highest-grossing R rated film of all-time, a rank it would hold until The Matrix Reloaded in 2003. (Adjusted for inflation, Beverly Hills Cop is the third highest-grossing R rated film of all-time behind The Exorcist and The Godfather.) Box Office Mojo estimates that the film sold over 67 million tickets in the US.

I don't think you can get much more mainstream than that – and that was many years before he first donned a fat suit for a movie.

It is true, though, that Murphy's career was in a slump in the early 1990s. "The Nutty Professor" revived it – so one could argue that it brought him back into the mainstream.

The film received positive reviews, with critics particularly praising the makeup and Murphy's performance. The film's success spawned a sequel, Nutty Professor II: The Klumps, which was released in 2000. The film was re-released on Blu-ray combo pack on March 6, 2012, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Universal Studios..... The Nutty Professor was a box office success, opening with $25,411,725 and reaching a domestic sum of $128,814,019, and $145,147,000 overseas, for a total of $273,961,019 worldwide.

The Nutty Professor propelled Murphy as a household name which should be enough clarification to support my original statement.

The film was released on December 5, 1984 in 1,532 theaters. It debuted in first place at the U.S. box office, making $15,214,805 in its first five days of release. It stayed at number one for 13 consecutive weeks and returned to number one in its 15th weekend making 14 non-consecutive weeks at number one tying Tootsie for the film with the most weeks at number one. The film earned $234,760,478 in the United States, being the highest-grossing film released in 1984. It also became the highest-grossing R rated film of all-time, a rank it would hold until The Matrix Reloaded in 2003. (Adjusted for inflation, Beverly Hills Cop is the third highest-grossing R rated film of all-time behind The Exorcist and The Godfather.) Box Office Mojo estimates that the film sold over 67 million tickets in the US.

I don't think you can get much more mainstream than that – and that was many years before he first donned a fat suit for a movie.

It is true, though, that Murphy's career was in a slump in the early 1990s. "The Nutty Professor" revived it – so one could argue that it brought him back into the mainstream.

The film received positive reviews, with critics particularly praising the makeup and Murphy's performance. The film's success spawned a sequel, Nutty Professor II: The Klumps, which was released in 2000. The film was re-released on Blu-ray combo pack on March 6, 2012, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Universal Studios..... The Nutty Professor was a box office success, opening with $25,411,725 and reaching a domestic sum of $128,814,019, and $145,147,000 overseas, for a total of $273,961,019 worldwide.

The Nutty Professor propelled Murphy as a household name which should be enough clarification to support my original statement.

No, no, no. Nothing in that quote supports what you said. You must be young. Eddie Murphy was a household name long, long before the Nutty Professor.

The Nutty Professor propelled Murphy as a household name which should be enough clarification to support my original statement.

Source?

The Motion Picture Herald used to do a poll among theater owners every year, asking them which ten movie stars they considered to be the biggest box office draws. From 1983 to 1989, Eddie Murphy was on that list every year, topping it in 1987, and regularly being placed ahead of people like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Harrison Ford, or Robert Redford. I'd argue that's a pretty good indication that his name was rather well-known in the 1980s already…

From the looks of it, all does not go as planned, from a slightly bigger car explosion than expected, to the set actually falling down around the actors mid-sex scene.

The roof coming down wasn’t a mistake; it’s a reference to an actual scene from The Human Tornado.

Looking at the context of that quote, it doesn't seem to be talking about any actual issues with the Netflix production but rather about a part of the movie's plot: The 2019 movie includes a scene that shows a film shoot going wrong when the set collapses. From your comment, it seems as if that scene was inspired by actual events.

From the looks of it, all does not go as planned, from a slightly bigger car explosion than expected, to the set actually falling down around the actors mid-sex scene.

The roof coming down wasn’t a mistake; it’s a reference to an actual scene from The Human Tornado.

Looking at the context of that quote, it doesn't seem to be talking about any actual issues with the Netflix production but rather about a part of the movie's plot: The 2019 movie includes a scene that shows a film shoot going wrong when the set collapses. From your comment, it seems as if that scene was inspired by actual events.

I actually meant that it was a plot point in the movie itself; in The Human Tornado, Rudy Ray Moore’s character bangs so hard that he brings the roof down. It happens at about 4:38 in this (very much NSFW) video: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xfexer

You can see that the roof slab is rigged to come down on a cable (complete with a pyrotechnic charge to spit fire, because that’s what roofs do when they collapse, obviously 😆).

So what the 2019 film does is to transplant that scene (with cable-rigged roof and all) into Dolemite.

I didn't realize Wesley Snipes was still alive because I have not seen him in anything for so long. I think the last time I heard of him was for some movie in 2017. I remember the 'Blade' series of movies he did, I really liked those and wish there were a few more.

The film was released on December 5, 1984 in 1,532 theaters. It debuted in first place at the U.S. box office, making $15,214,805 in its first five days of release. It stayed at number one for 13 consecutive weeks and returned to number one in its 15th weekend making 14 non-consecutive weeks at number one tying Tootsie for the film with the most weeks at number one. The film earned $234,760,478 in the United States, being the highest-grossing film released in 1984. It also became the highest-grossing R rated film of all-time, a rank it would hold until The Matrix Reloaded in 2003. (Adjusted for inflation, Beverly Hills Cop is the third highest-grossing R rated film of all-time behind The Exorcist and The Godfather.) Box Office Mojo estimates that the film sold over 67 million tickets in the US.

I don't think you can get much more mainstream than that – and that was many years before he first donned a fat suit for a movie.

It is true, though, that Murphy's career was in a slump in the early 1990s. "The Nutty Professor" revived it – so one could argue that it brought him back into the mainstream.

The film received positive reviews, with critics particularly praising the makeup and Murphy's performance. The film's success spawned a sequel, Nutty Professor II: The Klumps, which was released in 2000. The film was re-released on Blu-ray combo pack on March 6, 2012, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Universal Studios..... The Nutty Professor was a box office success, opening with $25,411,725 and reaching a domestic sum of $128,814,019, and $145,147,000 overseas, for a total of $273,961,019 worldwide.

The Nutty Professor propelled Murphy as a household name which should be enough clarification to support my original statement.

No, no, no. Nothing in that quote supports what you said. You must be young. Eddie Murphy was a household name long, long before the Nutty Professor.

yeah, he was, at least by the mid 1980's. Nutty Professor was made in 1996.

As much as I'm excited to see Eddie Murphy in something, anything (I was literally checking Wikipedia the other day to see when Meet Dave came out (2008)), that cast is also nothing to sniff at.

Yeah, the cast is pretty legendary.

As deeply talented and thoroughly appealing as the cast is ... and everyone involved is decidedly top shelf ... I'm none-the-less a bit wistful that Charlie Murphy couldn't have been a part of this project, (which he almost certainly would have been).

Without short-changing Eddie Murphy in any respect, I often felt that Charlie was even funnier than Eddie, within at least a certain array of character types. The elder Murphy brother (IMO) was able to infuse a range of subtlety, nuance and resultant hilarity into (at least some) characterizations that Eddie simply wasn't able to nail as deftly as Charlie. I truly miss his contributions.

The film was released on December 5, 1984 in 1,532 theaters. It debuted in first place at the U.S. box office, making $15,214,805 in its first five days of release. It stayed at number one for 13 consecutive weeks and returned to number one in its 15th weekend making 14 non-consecutive weeks at number one tying Tootsie for the film with the most weeks at number one. The film earned $234,760,478 in the United States, being the highest-grossing film released in 1984. It also became the highest-grossing R rated film of all-time, a rank it would hold until The Matrix Reloaded in 2003. (Adjusted for inflation, Beverly Hills Cop is the third highest-grossing R rated film of all-time behind The Exorcist and The Godfather.) Box Office Mojo estimates that the film sold over 67 million tickets in the US.

I don't think you can get much more mainstream than that – and that was many years before he first donned a fat suit for a movie.

It is true, though, that Murphy's career was in a slump in the early 1990s. "The Nutty Professor" revived it – so one could argue that it brought him back into the mainstream.

The film received positive reviews, with critics particularly praising the makeup and Murphy's performance. The film's success spawned a sequel, Nutty Professor II: The Klumps, which was released in 2000. The film was re-released on Blu-ray combo pack on March 6, 2012, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Universal Studios..... The Nutty Professor was a box office success, opening with $25,411,725 and reaching a domestic sum of $128,814,019, and $145,147,000 overseas, for a total of $273,961,019 worldwide.

The Nutty Professor propelled Murphy as a household name which should be enough clarification to support my original statement.

Obstinate when wrong huh? That is not an admirable quality. Eddie Murphy was big and a household name before the Nutty Professor.

The guy schooled you then gave your ego a fig leaf with the career revive bit. But you just want your ego crushed huh? Why even have an ego on a fact based site like Ars? Accept and acknowledge correct information and move on.

But let's actually look at your wiki quote and ignore the part where people actually lived through the 80's and know you are wrong. "The Nutty Professor propelled Murphy as a household name". Why do they say "propelled" and not "made"? Huh? Can you understand the English used here? Do you savvy that they are saying he was already a household name and this propelled that further?

Did you even read his quote? 14 weeks at number one over a 15 week period. Four (4) months. 1/3 (one third) of a year. Beverly Hills Cop was huge. If you cannot understand this simple fact and think that somehow the fat suit movies are what made him nobody can help you alleviate your ignorance.

Delirious and Raw came out in 83 and 87. Those made him household names. He was on SNL in the 80s, that made him a household name. Beverly Hills Cop cemented it all across stand up comedy, TV and movies. Eddie Murphy became one of the all time comedy greats in the 80's.

Try to post facts man. Not your hot take from "I is reads Wikipedia gud".